America might not have seen a massive red wave but it’s about to be drowned in a flood of a different kind. A veritable “avalanche” of illegal migrants is massed on the southern U.S. border, waiting for the impending end of Title 42 to enter America, the New York Post reports. The Washington Post warned in March that the number of illegal crossings could increase from the current, already huge 6,000 to 7,000 every day to 18,000 daily as the COVID-era border restriction ends.
Title 42, a Trump-era COVID-19 pandemic policy banning migrants from crossing the U.S. border, has been used to remove 2.3 million migrants since 2020, or about 40% of migrants encountered, according to the New York Post and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But a federal judge has overturned the ban with a five-week deadline, and there are already crowds camping on the border waiting for Dec. 21, the official end of Title 42.
But it’s not only asylum seekers pouring across the border. Last month, Border Patrol data for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 showed a 600% spike in illegal “‘special interest migrants’ flagged as potential national security risks,” or 25,627 individuals. And in September, Border Patrol Council VP Art del Cueto said on Steve Bannon’s War Room that the criminal cartels have so much control on the border, even young teen migrants are working for them.
“In December, it’s going to be an avalanche of people; a sea of people,” Venezuelan asylum seeker Samuel Guerra told the Post. Guerra has been camped in a tent city, sometimes sleeping on the ground, risking freezing temperatures and refusing a Mexican shelter’s invitation to ensure he is mere feet away “from where he plans to turn himself in to US Border Patrol agents when Title 42 ends.”
”They’re afraid one of us is going to freeze to death,” Guerra said. “I didn’t want to go because I can’t risk leaving here and maybe losing my opportunity to enter the US.”
Related: Failure at the Border: 5.5 Million Illegal Immigrants Have Crossed Into the U.S. on Biden’s Watch
National Border Patrol Union President Brandon Judd told the Post, “Once Title 42 goes away, it just means we’re going to be releasing even more people into the United States which, of course, just encourages more people to come.”
He worries that Latin American and Mexican smuggling organizations are already using the impending end of Title 42 to hype their services to “vulnerable migrants.” Judd explained, “Undoubtedly they’re already advertising to those countries, saying, ‘Title 42 is now gone; you’re free to cross.”
The Biden administration has not announced an alternative restriction policy to Title 42, of course. Apparently, an unvetted flood of 18,000 migrants per day isn’t a priority.
Title 42 has mostly been used to stop Guatemalan, El Salvadoran, Mexican, Honduran, and, more recently, Venezuelan migration.
Border towns and areas where migrants have been relocated, including New York and Chicago, have already been overwhelmed by Biden’s border crisis, and it’s only likely to get worse. El Paso, Texas is a particular hotspot. The city has spent $9.5 million on dealing with migrants just since August and has told the Biden administration it cannot reopen its welcome center or restart its bus program until it receives more money. So far, El Paso has only been refunded $2.2 million.
El Paso Council Member and Mayor pro tempore Peter Svarzbein said federal immigration reform is “long overdue.” He told the Post, “All these things need to be addressed and cans need to stop being kicked down the road.”
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